


Governed by consent

by misgivings



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Dirk Strider is xenophobic, Dubious Consent, Incest, Multi, Not Canon Compliant - The Homestuck Epilogues, Physical Abuse, Punishment, Verbal Humiliation, at least this time, no real sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:07:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24878944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misgivings/pseuds/misgivings
Summary: Dirk has been campaigning for Jane in some really fucked up ways that are left implicit - this is the story of his family reacting to it. Our favorite control freak loses all control of the situation.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Dirk Strider, Rose Lalonde/Dirk Strider, Roxy Lalonde/Dirk Strider
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22
Collections: Homestuck Polyswap 2020 - Derse





	Governed by consent

As soon as he opened the door, Dirk could sense something off. Living alone his entire life, he was acutely aware of the state of his home—organised in a mess that could only make sense to him. Security in order disguised as chaos. The disturbed pile of mail clued him in that someone had opened the front door far wider than he typically did.

The revelation that his accommodation had been broken into stung. Dirk wasn't a materialistic type, but his apartment had been the only thing undeniably his on a planet almost entirely conquered by the ocean. No wonder that he saw red and quickly pushed inside, eager to see how deep this intrusion ran. He didn't even see the shadow on the floor, or Roxy, until he had passed both, giving her ample opportunity to kick hard to his knee and drop him enough to pull into a tight headlock.

“What in the everloving fuck are you-” Roxy cut him off by gripping her bicep and squeezing enough to make breathing impossible for Dirk. The short gentlebro had a lighter frame but fighting spirit that would make any shonen hero blush, and as she dragged him quite roughly into the living room he kicked and scratched, leaving some bloody scrapes on her forearms.

The corners of his vision were darkening when she dumped him on the floor and he took a great heaving breath. He looked up and rolled onto his back like an animal, ready to defend himself with all four limbs.

Upside-down, he saw Rose and Dave sitting on the couch and his jaw dropped (though not in the conventional downward direction).

“Just what exactly in batshit crazyland is the fucking reason for this?” He asked. His voice shook despite his stern, uncompromising expression. “Since when do we resolve problems like this? Whatever happened to family therapy? There has to be a cleaner way to express ourselves than this heartless brutality.”

“Heartless?” Roxy laughed as she grabbed his ankles and flipped him over. He struggled until she sat on his lower back and grabbed a fistful of his hair, forcing him to look up at their ecto-children. His glasses had been knocked away in the struggle and he blinked before meeting Rose’s eyes.

“It is with the utmost  _ kindness  _ that we resort to this.” She said, positioning the well-polished toe of her shoe just under his chin. She stared him down with cold indifference, and helplessly he looked to Dave—who seemed equally without sympathy. He carefully removed his sunglasses and leaned forward, leaning his chin on his knuckle.

“What are we gonna do with you after this one, dude?” There was a sense of crushing disappointment in his voice. Dirk couldn't help but see the big bro he had distantly admired, loved enough to name himself after. Now he had failed that brother. His expression dropped as he looked down, staring at the stitching on Rose’s shoe.

“Do what you want. It hardly matters.” He grumbled sullenly like a scolded child.

“Oh? I suppose you expect us to cut your head off or something dramatic like that. But it hardly matters to Dirk Strider,” She jabbed her foot into his larynx, making him wheeze in pain, “Because he’s a god. I suppose you counted on being so much smarter than the rest of us?”

“First of all, I  _ am _ , by any meaningful metric, including some I invente-,” He coughed, throat still spasming with discomfort. When he regained his composure he stared up with utter defiance in his eyes.

“And more importantly, I already have outsmarted you. Public opinion is squarely behind Jane now. The election is a formality.” He smiled with all the cruelty he could muster. “I mean, you wouldn't be so depraved as to defraud the vote, would you? What kind of heroes would you be? Or maybe Roxy can conjure something that never existed; a snowball’s chance of victory.”

“That's what this is about? Winning?” Roxy said gently beside his ear.

“It's  _ about  _ a brighter future for humanity. I figure we deserve some fucking prosperity, and I'm sure as hell not letting an alien conquer my planet a second time. Not that I'd expect any of  _ you _ to understand, you all dropped your pants for the first extraterrestrial to come along and-”

Rose shut him up, nodding to Roxy who promptly shoved his face into the rug. 

“Jane knows.” Dave told him. “I mean, of course she knows you're on her side, whatever. But now she knows what kind of man you are in the dark, when you think nobody is watching. Christ, man, what you did to Jake...did you ever love him? Do you know what fucking love is?”

“Then she-”

“Shut up.” Roxy pressed her knee into his back hard until he let out a groan. “You think I fucking wanted this? You think this is prosperity? Dude, all we wanted was to live our fucking lives, the ones we never got. You filled my bestie’s head with all these bee-ess notions of power and control but she still got more heart than you ever will. You think she  _ wants _ you on her side after everything?”

“Congrats, dude, you accomplished something I couldn't: you dragged Roxy into politics. Happy?” Dave said, and cocked his head while he waited for an answer.

“I'm fucking ecstatic that I got you all to care about something other than this...this banal fucking existence you've consigned yourself to. Your book clubs and bad television—trust me, I know it's bad, especially my own show—God, I mean..what have you become? Where's the Lalonde and Strider who went out in a blaze of glory?” He forced himself up off the ground enough to look between both of them, shaking his head in disgust.

“The universe practically hands you meaning on a platter, an indulgence it does not dole out lightly, and instead of running the planet you just...live here? You two maybe had a week of real adventure, tops. Yes, I'm guilty of everything you think I did and probably a lot of stuff you don't. Sue me for being magnanimous enough to become your personal villain, Dave. I guess the ‘moral’ choice was to let you grow fat watching television.” Dirk sneered, expecting Dave to fume with rage. He wasn't expecting the hard, unfeeling slap to the face. 

“Do you script the steaming horseshit that comes out of your mouth, or is it just the sewer where bad anime villains go to die? You're not Watchmanning us, dipshit. Jane is dropping out of the contest. She's sick to death of you even more than we are after you came back into her life just to set her up as your figurehead, got that? After what you did to Jake it's crystal clear you just see us all as dirt when we're not directly aligned with your plotting. There's something genuinely broken inside you, right? That's why you just fundamentally do not see anyone but yourself as a real person? I...thought you were different than my bro.” He sighed, closing his eyes. Doubtlessly imagining the face of his tormenting guardian.

When they opened again, he met Dirk’s look of contempt for a split second before he struck again, his knuckles breaking his thin lip. Roxy held him up with something approaching pity when he nearly crumpled to the floor. He wanted to scream at the injustice of all of this, but he wouldn't show them that he was hurting.

There was an awful silence in the room. Dirk could hear himself breathing hard, jaw clenched tight as he watched his blood trickle in droplets and stain the rug. Three pairs of eyes were all on him; he could feel their gaze like burning pricks, Martian death rays of pity roasting him alive. His face was red as a plum. None of this was  _ fair _ . 

Roxy’s fingers touched on his forehead like she was taking his temperature, then slid through his hair, combing it back to its full glory. He felt sick to the stomach almost immediately.

“I hate to said ya had it coming...but yeah. A lot of people want to see you hurt for what you did.” She sighed, wiping his mouth and making him kneel. It felt like his body was labouring under a singularity’s weight, slow to react. He couldn't believe what was happening to him.

“Obviously, there won't be a trial.” Rose leaned forward towards him. “I mean, can you imagine the societal damage of one of their makers trying to subvert the entire political system—or finding out how he almost succeeded? And I suspect it would be difficult to imprison a god. That is, if you didn't just kill yourself in your cell like the little pathetic child you are.”

“I hate to play games your way, but obviously we're not letting Jane win this one.” Dave shrugged his shoulders, as if absolving himself of guilt. “We uh...politely suggested, I guess, that instead of revealing the corruption in her campaign she could just retire and congratulate Karkat. It's not like she's hurting bad, she's still, uh, the literal richest woman in the universe, not to mention fucking immortal. She can contest his reelection, or wait to run after him and his grandkids die, whatever.”

Dirk processed the information with a look of utter disgust, wrinkling his nose like he'd smelt shit. He spat on the ground and grit his teeth.

“Get off your high horse. You're no better than me.” He said, raising a finger at Dave.

“Maybe not,” He said, rising up and standing over Dirk, making him feel ever so small, “but at the end of the day there's three of us. The numbers don't lie,  _ bro _ .” With that, he echoed Dirk and spat with disgust, hitting him just under the eye. He twitched a little and wiped it off with the back of his hand.

“Bastard. So what  _ are _ you gonna do with me?” 

“We’re gonna keep you outta trouble. From now on until the end of time, you are this family’s bitch. You're right at the bottom of the social hierarchy.” Dave crouched to his level and touched his face with a smirk. “Figure we’re the only people who know you well enough to make sure you're not up to something. You stay in our custody now. You don't go anywhere without one of us, you don't take a dump without asking first.”

“Oh my god.” Dirk said with a blank look of horror. “This is some weird sex thing. You're dealing with your daddy issues by turning this into a weird sex thing.”

“I knew you'd think that.” Rose laughed. “Maybe there's justice there. You have caused us a lot of trouble…”

“You're a real pain in the keister.” Roxy shuffled closer behind him, her chest pressing into his back. He whimpered. In truth, not holding all the cards terrified him—especially in a relationship. 

“I wish I could say this was for Jake, but…” Dave trailed off as he grabbed Dirk’s face roughly. It sent a tingle through him, and he closed his eyes tight, begging his riotous subconscious to  _ not _ dredge up long-held fantasies. He was penned in by the three people in the world he might begrudgingly acknowledge as equals, and all of them thoroughly and rightfully despised him. He wondered if he deserved this.

Opening his eyes, Dirk’s shaking hands grabbed at Dave’s belt buckle, thumbing it open. Roxy cooed approvingly, grinding on his flat ass. He no longer felt afraid, but his heart clenched in his chest with apprehension all the same.

“Okay,” Dirk said, tugging his fly down. “Make me pay.”


End file.
